The Chelsea Effect
by harvestharvest
Summary: Everyone else on the island could see them happening, except for the two most clueless lovers involved. He fell slowly, then all at once. It took him a while, but by the time he realised it, he was already head over heels for her. It's called the Chelsea effect.


#1 He realised that she was a girl

* * *

Vaughn didn't need to tell anyone that Chelsea was his best friend on the island, because everyone knew. He might not be around often, but when he was there, chances were that Chelsea was in the vicinity. What they didn't know was that Chelsea might well be his first ever best friend.

Some may wonder at why and how he only found a best friend at his age – but Vaughn had never been the proactive one when it came to any relationship. He was a lone wolf that preferred to go solo, something his aunt Mirabelle often expressed her concern at. To Vaughn, being alone was perfectly fine, and allowed him to focus better on whatever he had to do.

Chelsea moved to the island a year ago, and she was immediately well received by the island community. When he first met her, she was already hanging out with his cousin Julia like they were inseparable BFFs, and as a result she was almost always here - in Mirabelle's shop - when he came around every Wednesday and Thursday. Call it the mere exposure effect – but her frequent presence somehow naturally forged a friendship between them both that was difficult to explain.

For one, she was the complete opposite of him. She laughed all the time. She knew everyone on the island by name. Her calendar was marked with everyone's birthdays. She was that kind of girl. And Chelsea somehow had the knack of getting him to speak up, which even Julia acknowledged was incredible. "We haven't seen each other in a while since childhood, and it took like, 2 months for you to speak to me in more than just grunts." Julia used to say.

Vaughn always thought girls were fragile and dainty and even weak, but not Chelsea. She was not afraid of hard work and getting dirty, and she could outrun anyone on the island. She even _almost_ beat him at arm wrestling a few times.

"I see you're getting quite chummy with Chels. Funny, I never thought you're the kind to be friends with a girl." Julia told him.

Vaughn had smirked back at her. "She's barely a girl. What kind of girl has the strength to run a farm all by herself, and wins 2nd place at a mining competition?"

Julia laughed. "You have a point. She's manlier than you." Vaughn shot her a dirty look.

"Oh, go get your own friend. Chels is mine." Julia rolled her eyes as she bent down behind the counter in the shop and picked up several bags of bird feed. As if on cue, Chelsea came bursting through the door.

"Julia! Vaughn! Look at this!" The farmer squealed as she slid a paper across the counter, swinging her legs onto a chair beside his. It was a flyer for the inaugural Sports Day at the island that would be held one week later. Julia frowned hard. "I've already seen this. I got one too, you know." Julia was never the kind of person who showed interest in sports and being drenched in sweat.

"But have you seen the prizes? Check this out." Chelsea pointed to the last and final event listed. A race across east town, and the winning prize – a jar of royal honey. Both he and Julia remained nonchalant as neither were that big of a fan of honey that they would be willing to run around the island for. Plus, it was the middle of summer.

"Oh, come on. It's like I'm friends with two bricks." She complained. "I really _really_ want to win this. My mother _loves_ honey. And her birthday's coming up. I'm going to win this for her!" She chirped excitedly, unfazed.

"Well, my mom's roped in to organising the obstacle race," Julia sighed. "and Elliot told me he's taking part in chess. Which means I'll be around too." She turned to Vaughn. "Are you going?"

"They're holding a chess competition in the middle of a field of grass? And, no. This is for kids." Vaughn shook his head while Chelsea rolled his eyes at him.

"That's because you're scared of losing." She teased.

"Am not. You should be grateful I'm not taking part in your race, because you know you'll lose."

Chelsea made a face like she was deciding whether or not to agree with him. "Then try something else."

"I don't feel like it."

"Ugh, you are so boring. At least come see me race."

Vaughn just shrugged, but Chelsea took it as a yes. She hopped off her seat, gathering the chicken feed into her arms. Usually, Vaughn delivered her weekly supplies, but since she dropped by that day, they exited the shop together with a trolley full of animal food and made their way back to her farm together.

"You know, this is actually going to be my first ever race." She told him on the way back.

"Your first? But you're a fast runner."

"I am." She chuckled at her self-praise. "I haven't always been the healthiest child around. My doctor said 'No strenuous activities!', so I was steered clear from all these carnivals and events in school. But I remember I always, always wanted to try them at least once."

Vaughn just nodded as he internalised the information, and they spent the rest of the journey in silence. Chelsea was a master of comfortable silences, and maybe that was why they got along so well, because he never felt a need to force himself out of his comfort zone. She just entered it herself.

* * *

It was 10:30. He had arrived slightly later than what he had intended to, but the sea was unpredictable. By the time he reached the shop, he thought Julia and Mirabelle would have already left for the meadow, where the Sports Day would be held, but was slightly surprised to see Julia just leaving the house as he approached.

"Shouldn't you be there already?" He asked as he came up from behind her.

"Oh, you're here." She hurriedly stuffed the key into his hands. "Can you lock up for me? Mom's gone to the meadow already, but I need to get to the farm first."

"Chelsea's? Why?"

"Yeah. Poor girl's out with a bad cold. She must've been training too hard for her race. You should have seen her running around the island on foot all week. I feel bad, she's been talking about that honey for days and then she was so excited, and you know, life happens." Julia let out a sigh.

"Anyway, catch you later. I need to go physically restrain her to stop her from killing herself by still coming for the race." And she was off.

But now that the only person Vaughn was there to see was well, not coming, he wondered if he should even go at all. It was not like other villagers expected him to be present either and he also had nothing to do there. He couldn't exactly tag along with Julia, since that would mean sitting through Elliot's chess game and pretending that he was even remotely interested in it. He was planning to just enter the house and hide it out for the rest of the day, but he did feel slightly bummed out for Chelsea. It was her first race, and now she would have to miss out on it again.

If you asked him, he would tell you he must have been possessed at that moment. A thought flashed by his mind and suddenly, he was speed walking to the meadow as fast as he can. Sign ups closed at 11:00, and he could just make it in time.

He made a beeline for the registration table, which was being cleared up as he approached.

"Wait," he panted, slightly out of breath. "I want to participate."

He looked up and saw Mark freeze in his tracks before sitting down across him again.

"Hey Vaughn. Didn't think you'll be coming."

Mark was a newbie farmer who was just starting out, and apparently, sometimes he would come around Mirabelle's shop to help on days that they were short staffed and when he was off the island. Vaughn realised he had never actually spoken to the guy properly before. He caught sight of him a few times around and Mirabelle mentioned him from time to time, but that was about it.

"Hey." He started awkwardly. "You're Mark, right?"

"That's me." Mark smiled at him in a way that made it even more awkward to stare at him in the face.

"Uh, thanks for helping out the shop when I'm not around." He managed.

"It's nothing. Plus, I get to learn a lot about animals by being there. Anyway, what would you like to go for?" He grabbed a pen and pulled out the sign-up sheet from a box.

"The east town race, please."

Mark raised his eyebrow. "Wow, going for the highlight of the day? You must be another fan of royal honey."

"Nah. I've never tried it before." Vaughn grabbed a pen that was lying around and began filling in his particulars.

"Oh? I know _Chels_ really wanted it. She told me that day. Do you happen to know where she is?"

"She's not coming. She's… occupied at the moment." Somehow, hearing her nickname rolling out of Mark's mouth so easily made Vaughn feel annoyed - he was pretty sure that Mark only arrived on the island for like, two months. And somehow, he didn't feel like telling Mark that _Chels _was sick and cooped up at home. Still, it surprised him slightly how the little lie just rolled off his tongue, smooth as butter.

Mark frowned a little and was clearly unconvinced, but he questioned no further. "Really? Well, here's your number tag. Good luck!"

Vaughn's active participation in the event must have raised a lot of suspicions.

"Vaughn? Man, is that a number tag?" Denny had exclaimed meters away from him, but he promptly turned the other way.

"Wait, what are you doing? You're supposed to help me out so that I can watch Elliot compete!" Julia was horrified.

"That's your problem." He scoffed back, taking a seat beside her at her mini game booth. Since the east town race was the last event, he had some time to kill. Charlie and Eliza were there, trying to throw hoops such that they landed on the necks of glass bottles.

"What are you even competing in?"

"East town race."

"You – what?!"

"What? Is there a rule that says I can't?"

"No, it's just…" She cocked her head to the side, but her eyes lit up. "I know, you're totally doing this for Chels."

"I'm not."

"Of course you are."

"I just felt like doing something, since I'm all the way here already."

"Yeah, keep trying to lie to me." Julia shook her head. "As if you willingly participate in stuff just for fun."

"Oh, shut up. I'm doing this so she won't start whining to us about the stupid honey for the next two weeks."

She nodded her head slowly in agreement. "I didn't think of that." She gave him a pat on the back. "You think you can do it? I know you won the level race every year when we were kids, but it's not like we're still in elementary school, you know."

"I think I can." He gave a confident smirk. "I don't think people on this island know that I can run."

"I don't even think they know you're here, actually."

"They're about to find out."

* * *

Immediately after he set foot on the starting line, he felt the regret building inside of him. What was he thinking? It had been ages since he had last run like this. Standing at the starting line of a race while wearing the cheesy deep purple event tee (courtesy of Lanna, of course) had to be the last thing on his mind when he arrived on the island that morning. He looked ahead of him and suddenly felt that east town was just so, so big. And he had to make it across and back in the sweltering heat. _Relax_, he told himself, glancing sideways at his competition. There were a number of familiar faces, but he couldn't put a name to any of them. If he paced himself well, he should be able to do it. There were no girls participating either, because he figured out they thought they wouldn't have stood a chance. They were no Chelsea.

And then he reminded himself of what he was doing this for. So she would shut up about it? In fact, not really. It just suddenly dawned on him that he had spurred into action that day as perhaps a subconscious attempt to return her all the favours she had done for him. She had been his friend. She accompanied him on boring errands. She had been there to groan with him as they listened to Julia's rants about work and boys. She gave him milk whenever he dropped by. These were strange thoughts to be having while a race was about to begin any minute, but Chelsea was a force to be reckoned with, wasn't she?

"Bang!" He took off.

* * *

_Knock knock knock._

Chelsea woke up with a start from what felt like a very deep coma. It was one of those naps that you woke up from feeling worse than before.

_Knock knock knock_. "Chelsea?"

She tried to sit up and rubbed her temple, eyes still groggy. Someone was knocking at her door. What day was it? Oh right, she was supposed to be competing at the island's Sports Festival. Except she overexerted herself like an idiot and earned herself an entire day of bed rest. Her farm was unattended to, her animals hungry. But she did feel better than this morning. Whatever Julia fed her must have worked; if only she felt better in time for the festival. She sighed as she crawled out of her warm, comfy bed, still in a disarray of pyjamas. "Coming," she croaked.

She cracked the door open and to her surprise, out stood Vaughn – sweaty, flushed, and get this – in the most ridiculously purple shirt she had ever seen in her life. It took a moment for her to take it all in.

"Hi," she said. "Nice shirt."

"Shut up."

"I would invite you in, except I am very underdressed and you'll probably catch my cold." She continued.

"It's fine. How are you feeling?"

"Better. Julia completely knocked me out for a day with that soup of hers. But it worked well. Aw, you came to check on me?"

"Whatever," he replied hastily. Vaughn was slightly relieved that she was at least feeling well enough to crack a joke. "I came to give you this." Slowly, from behind him, he showed her the gleaming jar of royal honey in his hands, sealed tightly and squarely in a lovely blue jar and a velvet ribbon.

"Is that…?"

Vaughn watched as Chelsea's jaw dropped. She took the precious jar of honey in her hands. "Did you steal it?" She gasped in disbelief.

"No, you idiot! Of course not. Why would I?" Though he found her reaction ridiculous, Vaughn couldn't help but grin.

"Is this royal honey? Really? Where did you get it?" She squeaked, turning the jar over and over in her hands. Before he could answer her, she squealed even louder, all the colour and excitement returning back to her pale, sickly face.

"You won the race?"

"I told you, you wouldn't have been able to outrun me. I was champion when I was – Woah!" Vaughn didn't get to finish his sentence, because the next thing he knew, Chelsea had tackled him in a bear hug and was jumping up and down, screaming excitedly. "Oh my god, oh my god! Yay! It's royal honey!" She laughed, wild and excited, her hair dancing in his face, her laughter and joy blossoming in the air between them. Vaughn was so flustered by this sudden physical contact he was at a loss. Chelsea felt strangely soft and strangely warm, was she having a fever, or was the heat coming from him? All those times he watched her work tirelessly in her farm, doing a million things at the same time, running up and down – it never occurred to him that Chelsea could feel so soft, so delicate… And her hair. It tickled, it was light as a feather, it was… Wait. What?

"Ok, ok. Calm down, calm down." He tried to say, while awkwardly sticking out his arms at the side, not sure what to do with them. But Chelsea kept going on and on. "Oh my god, mom will be so happy. I can't believe you did it! You did it, Vaughn! Thank you, thank you!"

Finally, Vaughn had to pry her off of him and take a step back from her, while she continued to beam at him happily like a child.

"Yeah yeah. Now, it's time for you to go back to bed. Don't jump around so much, you're still feverish. Bye."

He didn't even turn around while she yelled a thousand thank yous behind him. Vaughn was too occupied with a shocking revelation.

Chelsea was undoubtedly, a girl.


End file.
